Start off this one by saying I’m not a football fan, and I wouldn’t watch the Super Bowl if it weren’t for the commercials.

But anywho: I did watch the entire Super Bowl (Well, I was in the room, I was actually working on a project for work while they were doing that thing with the football) but I loved the commercials! (Post on Frames of Film later on my top ten.) So I know that the Saints won.

As soon as I saw it happen I thought to myself: “The Saints won the Super Bowl, why can’t Saints win where it really matters? In the real world.”

And so, in assosciation with Blue Squid Producitons, we’re developing The Saints Challenge! (No way endorsed by the football team or the NFL.)

It’s simple: everyday, do something and be more of a saint. For some people it might involve doing good deeds, for other people it might involve getting closer to God, through reading the Bible or meditating.

It’s as simple as that! Be more of a saint!

We’ve set up a small page on the Blue Squid Productions website about it: check it out at http://www.bluesquidproductions.com/saintschallenge

SPOILER ALERT! Do not read if you are in the process of watching Fraggle Rock or if you ever want to watch it.

Last night I finished the final season of Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock for the first time. I’ve blogged before that Jim Henson is the greatest film-maker of all time, and all that stuff, but I think I’ve never exactly told  you how I feel about Fraggle Rock. I  love the show. I can (and have) spent entire days doing nothing but watching Fraggle Rock.

The entire idea of the show was crazy. A guy who worked for Henson approached him one day and said that he was leaving the company to produce an international kids show, Jim laughed and said “Why don’t you just do that for us?” Thus: Fraggle Rock was born. Jim said “Since, we’re making an international kids show, why don’t we make one that can stop war?” They wanted at least two original songs in each episode of this weekly show. They wanted hundreds of background characters at one time.

It was a tall order, and a big dream, but Jim had faith in the concept.

Fraggle Rock’s many story arcs form a very large story arc that spans the whole series. (It doesn’t seem like their connected until the very end.) None of the creatures can see that they are the same! In season one the viewers are shown mostly Fraggles. The Fraggles  love to sing and dance and play and balance pickles on their noses. The other groups just get in the Fraggles’ way: The Gorgs are big and just want to hurt the Fraggles, the Doozers just want to work and build. One line in season 1 sticks out, it’s from episode 22: Junior Gorg thinks he killed a Fraggle and decides to give it a proper funeral “I’ll make it a grave stone… No! Grave stones are for names– Fraggles don’t have names!” The viewers are shocked of course Fraggles have names! They are intelligent life– how can you be so ignorant?!?!

Then in the second season the audience dives into the world of the Doozers. We learn that Doozers don’t just work, but they play too! They even have names! (Many Fraggles were surprised at this realization) Then you realize how selfish you were. Like the Fraggles to the Gorgs, Doozers seemed insignificant to Fraggles. But they are living, breathing creatures.

In the final seasons (No one is quite sure how many there were: Some say 5, some say 4.) the worlds come together. In the episode The Gorg Who Would Be King Junior Gorg sees the world from a Fraggle’s point of view. He learns that they are linked. The Fraggles even learn a little bit.

Then in the final two episodes The Honk of Honks and Change of Address Gobo Fraggle finally talks to the “silly creature” (Human being) named Doc, that he has been hiding from for five years. They learn each other’s names: they learn they have feelings.

The worlds finally come full circle. The Gorgs grow the radishes, the Fraggles eat the radishes, the Doozers build out of the radishes. The water lies in the Fraggle pond, the water goes through pipes up to Doc’s workshop, the Gorg’s retrieve it via the well, the Doozers use it to generate energy. The worlds are all connected.

It’s a beautiful message we all can learn from: We are one world, one earthen family.

Think about it in our world: That ant outside. That insignificant ant, doing nothing but working all day, he has a story. He has a family, and a home, and I’m sure that their is something out there that he enjoys. (Maybe he just enjoys working!) Think about President Obama. He’s big and powerful: the most powerful man in the world. He has a story. He is real. He isn’t just some robot that they push out of the closet every once in a while to do the State of The Union! (Well, he’s not ALWAYS a robot.) He is a human being who was born once, who sleeps at night, gets tired, get’s hair cuts, goes to the bathroom and everything! He is REAL!

Now, I’d like to leave you all with the lyrics to one of my favorite songs from Fraggle Rock:

I had always thought the world was full of mystery.
I had seen so many faces that were strange.
And it sometimes seemed that each one was my enemy:
And I thought our fighting ways would never change.

But I learned to meet my brother in my enemy,
And I learned that we are none of us alone.
For I found a friend who’s different, and she cares for me!
And I know a place we share can be our home.

We are the children of tomorrow!
Each one is different and the same.
Help us to live  here with our other, our brother:
One in heart, one in hope, one in pain!

Today I got off of work early.

It was a nice day so I decided to take Jimmy out for a walk. Everyone we saw, Jimmy smiled and waved at. (And I had some business cards just in case!) People really started enjoying seeing Jimmy! One woman honked her car horn from the street just so Jimmy would wave at her! A grown woman honked her horn so a puppet would say “Hi!”

Now– A Brief Tangent:
When Jim Henson and his team (Jocelyn Stevenson, Duncan Kenworthy, and Michael Frith) began to develop the universe that would become Fraggle Rock in the early eighties, some people he talked to thought that Henson might of cracked. His goal from Fraggle Rock? To create world peace.

You didn’t read it wrong. Jim wanted to stop war. With a television show. With puppets dag nabbit!

Well, I don’t know what happened, but there’s still war. (Some might say “Jim failed” but he didn’t. I refuse to admit it. I’M NOT OBSESSED!!!)

But anyways, I was walking down a street with Jimmy when I saw some kids that don’t like me. They’ve tried to intimidate me in the past. They even tell their little brother to beat me up (And that’s actually pretty funny.) I gulped as they considered what they would say to me and out of nowhere Jimmy said to them “HI!” and gave them a big grin and wave. They were shocked for a moment.

They didn’t know what to do. So they threw another insult at me. “What’s wrong with your face??!” Jimmy shot back at them: “You talkin’ ’bout his face? I know! It’s killing me! I have to live with this mug!” They all laughed. Doug exit stage right! As I left they called out “Wait!” “Come Back!” etc.

I entertained them with Jimmy, and these kids that disliked me were laughing with me! Through my joke– through entertaining them– I made a connection. I brought peace to us.

Jim Henson wasn’t crazy, something just went wrong with the execution of his plan.

What’s the difference between Fraggle Rock and Blue Squid Productions?

God.

I have something Jim Henson didn’t have– I have God.

I’ve always said that I don’t need to worry about competition from other brands like The Walt Disney Monster Company. I have God, they don’t.

Fraggle Rock, while being the greatest TV show of all time, did not stop war. It didn’t fulfill its mission. God has given me a HUGE mission (One I’m not ready to reveal yet, only my very closest friend knows of it.) and when I first heard it, I had doubts. But I have God. It’s amazing, and hard to believe, but this mission God has trusted me with– if I stick with God– it’ll happen… I’ll succeed.

Someday I’ll have brunch with Jim Henson. I’ll try to not geek out [much]. But who’s going to be impressed with the other man’s work? The man with beard and frog or man with Jew fro and squid?

I’m not exactly sure where to start this one. How about here:

One man who has inspired me beyond human capability is Jim Henson. The man is a genius. When he directed, it was magic. When he performed, it was magic. When he sang, it was magic. When he created, it was magic. He had this phenomenal Midas Touch. There’s no such thing as a bad Henson film (And when I say Henson film, I mean a film he actually worked on… now that he’s dead the films are… debatable.) Jim Henson inspired me more than anyone else has. He led me to Christ (indirectly.) and got me interested in film and puppetry. When everyone at school hated me and made fun of me, and when no one at home could give me comfort, I found comfort in the Muppets. I found comfort from Jim Henson. He gave me a dream.

Changing the subject:

Recently I was working on a song. I started to think about Jimmy and an amazing realization hit me: Jimmy is mine.
I actually created a character who was cute (Adorable even!), who had a great personality and voice. Jimmy was MY CHARACTER! I was shocked for a moment. I was literally in awe that I created a character. Then my mind expanded. I thought about our recent video, One Year of Squidishness and all the characters. They were my characters. They were my brain children. I created this wonderful, diverse batch of characters. And the realizations continued further!

I thought about Jim Henson and why everyone liked the Muppets. It was in the character! Jim Henson and his team had created a group of characters, and while separate, came together every now and then. It sounded awfully like what I was doing. I was creating characters. Characters that might just last forever.

It all started with Jimmy. He was the first character I developed. Long before I became Christian I wrote a puppet show script called The Monsters (an idea I still really want to revisit with a Christian spin.) The show featured a little boy, and I named him Jimmy (If you haven’t figured out who he was named after yet, read this post from the top again, you’ll get it.)

The root of all long-lasting franchises in the entertainment world is Character. I achieved character by somehow making Jimmy cute, Scot silly, Blue Bologna…. like Blue Bologna is (I don’t know how to articulate this one…) If I have these euphoric characters now, when I’m 15, think about what I’ll have when I’m 30. Imagine what will be tied to the names Blue Squid Productions and Doug Hanna when I’m 50! I’ll have a whole world at this rate! Hopefully I just don’t peak for a while!

So take that for what it is. I developed a batch of characters just like the greatest film-maker of all time did, and I’m young… Now to quote probably the third best film-maker of all time (And no, I’m not calling myself #2) Walt Disney, There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow!